


Knight in Narglatch Skin Interludes

by Ars_Arpadok



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-05 05:34:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ars_Arpadok/pseuds/Ars_Arpadok
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amnesiac Clone Commando Gregor fights for his life, his return to the Republic and maybe something more. Begins just after ep. 100. These chapters are moments a bit too steamy for FF.net</p><p>Original Story Link:</p><p>http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9079145/1/The-Knight-in-Narglatch-Skin</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Interlude 1

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place at the end of Chapter 4.

Gregor was idly glad that he’d remembered to clean up his apartment before going to work tonight. There was only one dirty glass and plate next to the sink and his bed was made and neatly folded into the wall. Tidy room or not he was beginning to wonder if he wasn’t going about this all wrong. 

They’d walked back to his place sedately, hand in hand sure, but no wild making out up against walls, no fumbling for the keys as they tried to strip each other in the hallway. They’d all but strolled back through the dawn which gave Gregor far too much time to think about what he was doing; gave the voice in his head too much time to argue its case. Now that he was in his apartment with a woman who made his ache and behave in strange, stupid ways all he could do because of that stupid voice and the doubt it brewed up in his brain was lean against the door; frozen, watching her walk around the tiny room. She paused here and there to touch things, the bit of salt scoured rock he’d found one day that looked like a tiny eopie, his two book slates that he hardly had time to look through, his spare shirt hung on a wall peg. Then there was nothing else to occupy her and she turned back to him. 

She stood in the middle of the room and looked at him, an unspoken question on her face. Gregor was surprised to find that he could read her expression easily, even when she was using her Ocsinin face to hide things. He could see that she was curious about something, she wanted him to see that, but he could also tell that she was a little nervous, excited maybe. That was what got him, what put his feet in motion. That was what got him within arm's reach of her. He was nervous and maybe a little excited, so was she; he wasn't totally alone in this new ocean of...something.

He came to a stop a little bit off from her and reached for the band holding her hair up. He almost pulled on it but hesitated, worried that he might yank on ; hurt her. She blinked, realized what he wanted, almost smiled and let down all that black hair that he'd been wanting to touch for days.

He'd never touched anyone's hair but his own and he wondered if it was just the novelty that made it seem so soft; unimaginably soft and silky and cool even in the heat. He brushed it gently between his fingers, running lengths of it between them; weighing it in his hands, stepping closer to smell it. She smelled, unsurprisingly, like salt and there was a trace that unpleasant, acrid smoke but it was being quickly overcome by something else; something far more pleasant. Under the salt and over the smoke was a warm, moist scent like the ground under trees after a rain, but sharper too and almost metallic. It coated the back of his throat as he inhaled. It made his fingers bend around the nape of her neck; made him very aware of his own body and hers, the differences between them, where they touched and didn't; where he wanted them to touch. 

She was breathing deeply but faster than before, her hands curled around his biceps, squeezing sporadically. He glanced down, found her leaning forward with her chin cocked to one side, eyelids half closed, lips parted, head swaying a little on her neck. He had stopped playing with her hair and was just watching her. She realized gradually; resurfaced and looked up at him. 

Her seemed somehow blacker, like they were absorbing light, like they were two pieces of starless night cut into point-ended ovals and fixed inside her. He felt like he could have tripped and fallen into the void of her eyes and he realized he wouldn't mind a bit if he did. She looked up at him and he didn't care if he seemed cool or desperate or naive because it didn't matter to him anymore. He kissed exactly the way he wanted to, open mouthed and deep. He picked her up, arms tight around her waist as he lifted so her head was level with his and tried to kiss her as deep as her eyes looked to him, into oblivion and a black forever. 

He dropped her to the ground suddenly. She looked surprised and about to pout until he reached for the catch of the bed; then she laughed a little breathlessly and toed off her boots. He pressed the release too hard. The bed dropped out of its little cubby like it was coming out of orbit. Thena jumped a bit at the percussive bang of it hitting the floor and then giggled; continued what she started. She unbuttoned the cheap fabric of the uniform quickly and wiggled out of it; dropped it to the dusty floor with an elegant flick of her wrists like it was a silk robe. He stood next to the bed staring as she reached for the clasp on the deep red bra. 

"Wait." 

His voice sounded deep and foreign to him. She stopped, hands halfway behind her back and looked at him, waited for him to say something else. He couldn't, instead he reached for her again, letting his fingers play along her ribs and down her spine to her full bottom, which he cupped and used to leverage her onto his lap as he sank onto the mattress. She got the hint and straddled him, her matching wine red panties straining a little as she spread her legs. 

His mind shut down then. Even the little niggling voice that had been pricking at him about how he shouldn't be doing this shut up. Gregor could not think about anything except what a contrast the cool of her skin was on his burning palms, how that hot, salty, earth smell was now stronger than anything in the room; how it was searing its way into his brain. 

He ran his hands over her thighs, loving the give of them, the width and the soft skin over the muscle; how they were different from his. She was pushing off his coat, he had to relinquish first one leg and then the other to let her get it off but he did, eventually. Then she was pulling his shirt out of his pants and he had to let go of her completely, even her mouth which he hadn't been more than about a centimeter away from in the past five minutes. When he finally emerged from under the fabric she was reaching for the clasp of her bra again. He let her take it off this time. 

He was fascinated by her breasts, by the way they hung; the sloping top and the mounded underside. Her nipples were broad and soft when she first slipped the bra off her shoulders but they grew hard and pointed as he looked at them. He watched the way the flesh undulated softly as she breathed, growing paler as they sat. She shifted a little on his lap, accidentally rubbing against his crotch and Gregor saw stars for a moment. He crashed back to Abafar when she suddenly made a move to get off of him. He grabbed her ass, digging his fingers in just a little because it felt so very nice. She cleared her throat uncomfortably and he looked up. She was frowning. He felt suddenly terrified that he'd screwed everything up, that they were going to stop.

"They're not...I mean I know they're not very big..." 

Gregor was perplexed. It must have showed on his face because she pulled her eyebrows together unhappily. His hormonal fog cleared a little more and he realized that he was supposed to do something.

"What?" 

It wasn't the right thing to say. She began to struggle a little to get off of him. He tried not to get completely distracted by the way she was rubbing on him, the way her breasts bounced a little because there was something about this encounter that he needed to fix. She pushed against his chest a bit harder but with only one hand, the other one was across her chest.

"You mean..." it seemed impolite somehow to come out and say it, in spite of everything they were doing. He settled for reaching up to touch them instead. He gently pushed her arm out of the way and slipped his hands over her breasts. And then mentally kicked himself for not doing that earlier because if he'd thought her ass was nice to touch he hadn't understood what he was missing up here. 

The flesh in his hands was soft and yielding and smooth. It just filled his palm and when he flexed four fingers along the rounded underside; the hardened nipple rubbed against the heel of his hand, which felt generally fantastic. He tried shifting his hands to the side and found he could use his thumbs to trace the contours of each breast as he did so. He brushed against the nipple and watched it get harder, curious he rubbed it laterally with just the tip of his thumb; it got harder again and a little longer too. Thena gasped. He glanced up, embarrassed that he'd gotten distracted again when he was supposed to be reassuring her of something, if only he could remember what.

Her eyes were huge, almost totally round and her mouth was hanging slightly slack. Her face was pale, the slight moisture breaking out on it catching the light from the high window. He grinned.

"Hey, you're sweating."

She blinked at him owlishly, bared her teeth in something that may have been a smile and jumped forward, knocking him backward onto the mattress. She ended up straddling his lower ribs. He sighed happily as she leaned forward and made a grab for her breasts again. She squealed a little as he got back to carefully investigating what happened when he tried different combinations of fingers and pressure against her nipples. Then he had a totally bizarre, irresistible idea. He sat up a little and put his mouth on the left one. Thena mewled oddly and lost her balance. He sputtered.

"I'm sorry...oh, are you okay? Thena? Thena?" She rolled onto her side, back pressed to the wall. She was laughing. He frowned.

"Oh, was that...I mean, was that not right?" She giggled again and then coughed, trying to get herself back under control.

"I take it that you don't think my tits are too small?" 

It was the most unreal statement he'd heard in a long time. 

"Who says that?" She looked down, tracing non-sense patterns on his green sheet. 

"You, know, people...Borkus and, uh, his brother-in-law and...I've heard it before. Males tend to...like...bigger ones." 

Gregor was gob smacked at how wrong people could be. He didn't have words to express it though so he just stared at her, hoping that she could read his disbelief. She wouldn't look at him. He was at a complete loss until a helpfully errant cough of cold air from the whimsical air-conditioning unit made her shiver, gooseflesh breaking out along every inch of her skin; every inch. Gregor's primeval male instinct had had enough. He somehow pulled Thena away from the wall and rolled on top of her in what felt like a single, fast motion. She stared up at him with wide, surprised eyes and he suddenly had words.

"I don't know who you've been talking to but..." it seemed like the appropriate thing to lean down and kiss the top of one breast for emphasis,  
"they..." he kissed the top of the other to be fair;  
"have..." he licked the nipple, she bucked a little  
"strange..." he licked the other one to make her buck again,  
"standards." She pulled his face up for a very nice, wet kiss as he finished. 

"Okay," she said in a high pitched, quavery voice when they stopped kissing several seconds, or maybe minutes, later. She leaned up to run her tongue along the tendon at the front of his throat and his toes curled. She began to bite lightly along his neck and clavicle and he the tingling up and down his spine and arms and legs threatened to knock him over. He locked his elbows and bent his head down to give her more surface area to work with. She obliged him and upped the ante by starting to suck of the skin just behind his ear. He heard a strange, choked moan come out of his mouth and his pelvis involuntarily drop to press harder against her. 

Thena yelped in surprise and pain. The sound snapped him out of his haze so fast he was dizzy for a moment. 

"What, what's wrong?" He blinked rapidly, trying to see what was wrong. She bit her lip and looked sheepish, mumbled something.

"What?"

"Your zipper...on the trousers. It's kind of...rough and, um, sharp?"

He looked down at where he had been grinding into her seconds ago and realized what must have happened. He felt his face get hot.

"I'm sorry, um...I'm, are you alright?" She was grinning as she nodded.

"Minor hazard. You should take your pants off to avoid a repeat."

He glanced at her again to be sure she wasn't really hurt. She squirmed languidly as he pulled his pants and socks off in record time. She giggled again and hooked a leg over his now bare calf and proceeded to trace her way from back of the knee to buttocks and back down again. The combination of her cool, soft skin against the hair of his leg and the way her pelvis tilted to let her move like that was almost as good as the necking.

He realized he was being kind of passive in all of this as she ran her hands over his chest, toying with his nipples for a few amazing seconds before stroking her way down his back, around his hips and towards... Gregor did lose his balance when Thena wrapped her fingers around his cock through the thin undershorts he was still wearing. He barely managed to roll towards the wall so he didn't just flop down on top of her but then all he could do was lay on his back like a beached fish and try to remember how to breath. 

Thena didn't seem to want him to remember. She leaned down to kiss the center of his chest and he felt her smile, he couldn't get his eyes open for some reason to look at her at that moment. She stroked him again and it was suddenly imperative he gets the damned shorts off. He hauled his eyes open to slits as his hands scrabbled for the waist band. Thena got the hint and pushed his clumsy fingers away to help. 

Or not. Definitely not, she wasn't helping at all. She was peeling the damned things off of him by centimeters. She brushed her fingers over his thighs and his cock a little bit as she drew them down over his buttocks. She took a moment to run her fingers along the place where his legs and his ass joined up and he keened. She pulled the shorts down his legs and he had no idea why it should feel so insanely good to have someone touch his kneecap or his kriffing ankle but it did and she was evil and she was trying to kill him. 

It was a miracle that he managed to survive the ordeal of the shorts but she had worse in store. She slithered back up his legs in a reverse of what she'd done seconds ago but now it was her being dragged against him rather than cheap synth-weave. The contrast between the wiry patch of hair at the very base of her pelvis and her ludicrously silky skin and the volcanic, wet heat between her legs as she pressed splay-legged against his thigh was insane. It was totally implausible that such sensation existed. 

She was leaning forward, his eyes had once again glued themselves shut, but he felt the muscles move in her legs, felt her hair slip forward to tickle his hips, felt her mouth opening against the head of his rampant cock. That couldn't be right. 

Gregor forced his eyes open and realized that he wasn't imaging anything. She had her lips against him, was opening her mouth to take him in deeper. He shuddered violently at the sudden wet swirl of her tongue and almost screamed. It was too much. 

Somehow he sat up, pulled her upright and away from his cock, got her back straddling his chest, which was a whole other problem because he could feel every molten fold of her skin against his ribs as he gasped for air but it was manageable for now. 

"You didn't like that?" 

Why did Thena sound hurt when she said that. He tried to focus. She wasn't frowning but her lower lip was pushed out a bit as though she were about to start. 

"No, I mean...yes. I...just...too much." 

She smiled down at him wickedly and ground her hips against his ribs a little more.

"Oh. Okay then." 

She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes, obviously trying to come up with some new, horribly wonderful thing to do to him but Gregor realized that he was a great believer in turn-about being fair play. He reached back up for her breasts, squeezing and tugging until her head fell back on her neck. He relinquished his hold on the left one to slide an arm around her back feeling a primal male sort of satisfaction when her protesting noise became a breathy groan as he sat up and started using his mouth on her again. He switched between each breast, rolling his tongue around, biting gently which made Thena shiver in the most delightful way. He even took a moment to bite and suck on her neck; though that had unintended consequences as he had to slide her down his body and into his lap to get to her throat. 

If he'd thought her mouth had been hot, or that the feeling of the wet skin between her legs on his chest and thigh had been outrageous, the sensation of it on his groin was ungodly. His mouth had to stop what it was doing so he could gasp for air. He sort of worried that Thena would use the opening to torment him more but she seemed as wrecked as him. Her mouth was hanging open and she was panting, skin luminous with sweat. She ground against him and they moaned in harmony. He pressed up into the slick skin involuntarily and felt her fingers grip his shoulders hard enough to bruise. The blood pounded through his head demanded he do that again. He did. She met him at the apex of it, pressing down as he went up. His head swam and a spiraling tightness appeared at the base of his spine. He thrust again and felt the tension inch towards his testicles. If he could only do that once or twice more it would reach them and he suddenly wanted to feel that more than anything he could remember. 

Thena shuddered and sighed his name and something else. He growled a little and tried to find the right angle to grind his name back out of her mouth. She gasped and said the second word again. It was 'wait.' He didn't want to do that, didn't want to stop the slick, hot rubbing that was getting him closer to that promise of...something by the second. But Thena was pulling away, shoving herself off of him unsteadily. He was too distracted to effectively stop her and suddenly he was alone on the bed, his erection damp and cold. He blinked at her, confused and starting to feel a little angry at having his...something taken away. 

She was rummaging clumsily through her discarded clothes. What was she doing? Was that all there was? If so why was he still so frustrated and hot and why wouldn't she come back over here so he could touch her more? He tried to say that, any of that, but managed only to produce a slightly pathetic, quizzical grunt. She straightened up, several plastoid wrapped squares in her hand. 

"Protection." She announced. 

He blinked, confused. She toddled back toward the bed, dropping three of the squares on the crate next to it and tearing open another one. He watched her carefully, wondering if this meant he got to touch her again. She was pulling something translucent and white-ish from the plastoid, dropping the wrapper carelessly next to the bed. It suddenly smelled of synthtex, like the gloves he wore when the health inspector turned up and Borkus wanted to make a good show of it. But that wasn't a glove. Where was she...oh.

It was something like when she'd pulled off the shorts but not really at all. She stroked him and rolled the glove-thing over the head of his cock and down all the way to the base. It felt fantastic, not as good her crotch but pretty damned wonderful anyway. That she gave his balls a playful squeeze once it was all the way down was just a lovely bonus. 

Then she was swinging her leg back across him, pushing him down onto his back and repositioning herself on top of him. It wasn't quite as hot as before. The sheath over the length of him blocked out some of the sensation but that wasn't so bad really. He didn't feel as out of control. She rose up a little on her knees as he watched, disappointed that she was taking all that wet, heat away again. He reached for her hips to stop her but she wasn't trying to pull away, she was reaching under her for his diamond hard cock and putting it...Gregor groaned and gasped and started panting and she lifted him up inside of her. He was suddenly intensely grateful for the synthtex sheath and its slight deadening effect. Without it he was certain he would go insane. This was a thousand times better than the surface grinding they had been doing before.

Thena sank down slowly, head falling backward in time to her motion. He wanted to watch the tendons stretch and the alluring way her hair fell back along her spine but the pressure and the heat inside her was distracting him. His hands tightened on her hip, started to pull her down but she exhaled sharply and pressed a hand into his chest. 

"Wait, slow...give me a minute." 

He didn't quite understand but in that second he couldn't have denied Thena anything. He waited, let her slide agonizingly down his shaft until, what felt like hours later, the wiry hair between her legs brushed his. 

He was suddenly entranced by the stark whiteness of her skin against her hair, the glow of moisture on it. He watched a bead of sweat slide over her clavicle and roll down her chest toward her nipple. He never saw it actually reach its destination because Thena suddenly breathed in and the muscles inside her tightened along his cock. His eyes rolled backward in his head. Then she moved, rose up a little bit on her knees before dropping slowly down onto him. His toes curled. She did it again, moving further up and further down. His tongue curled. Then she rose up until she was almost completely off of him and suddenly dropped all the way back down. His eyes snapped open as she whimpered. Her head was tossed back again, hair sticking slightly to her body, mouth open, smiling, eyes closed. She moved her hips back and forth a little making both of them shiver. She tried to move vertically again but he was fairly sure that he would die if she did that just now so he tightened his hold on her hips and encouraged her to rock a bit more. Her head came up as he did that. 

She opened her eyes and kept smiling down at him. He smiled back and decided that, since things were going so well, it might be time to be a little more active. He thrust his hips up. Her head fell back again. The stretch of her spine made the her internal muscles pull in new directions. He tried again. She ground down on him and moaned. The spiraling tightness was back in his spine and working its way rapidly back toward his groin. He thrust a third time, harder. Thena gasped and writhed on top of him. He was about to try it again when she suddenly leaned back more and snaked a hand between their bodies. 

He almost thought she was going to reach for him but realized she was pressing her fingers against her own skin, right at the apex of where her body touched his. He could feel her fingernails rubbing little ghost-circles against his skin but he didn't think that she was trying to touch him. Her internal muscles began to tighten again but Gregor clenched his teeth and tried to ignore it in favor of working out what she was doing with her hand. 

He reached forward curiously, brushing the same spot her fingers did when he saw an opening. She let out a high pitched hiss and suddenly snapped forward to look at him. He withdrew his hand, or started to but she grabbed his wrist and pulled it back forward.

"Do that again." 

Her voice was rough and he found that he very much wanted to do whatever she told him. He rubbed the wet skin again. She keened. He rubbed more. Her muscles clenched down on him. He moaned. He rubbed in little circles. She gasped rhythmically, hips moving forward and back in time to his touch. The tightness in his spine was throughout his groin now. It was pulling on his testicles and slowly climbing his cock. 

"Harder. Please. Gregor," Thena ground out between panting breaths. 

She reached down to guide his hand to where she wanted it. Her muscles were like a vice around him now. He pressed and crooked his fingers. She said his name again, raggedly. His hips were moving on their own now pushing up into her rapidly and hard. A weird, lucid part of his brain wondered if he might be hurting her but it fell silent when she said 'please' for a second time. He let her press his fingers into the wet softness between her legs and he rubbed where she directed. His vision was starting to flash with multi-colored lights and he wheezed. There was suddenly too little air in the room. 

Thena was letting out a breathy, high, continuous wail. He was sure she couldn't clench down on him any tighter. But then she did. She went rigid and the pressure on his cock became too much. He tried to yell in alarm but nothing came out. Then her muscles spasmed and he found his voice long enough to growl her name. The building pressure exploded making him piston up into her body. His hands held her hips in a death grip as she writhed and shook. Everything went blue and gold and green in flashes behind Gregor's eyes. He suddenly wanted to open them, to see Thena as she came apart. He pried his eyelids apart as the intensity of the color flashes started to fade. Seeing Thena though gave him another jolt; her hair in a mad tangle across her shoulders, chest and back, her face both relaxed and intense, eyes screwed shut, breast bouncing enticingly as she rode him. 

She stuttered a groan, shuddered a final time and collapsed across his chest. They were both breathing hard, as though they'd been running. He wrapped his arms around her back as she quaked through the last of her release, shivering himself whenever her internal muscles gripped his softening cock. Eventually, she stilled. He brushed the sweat matted hair away from her face, running his lips along her forehead and temples as he did. She cuddled closer to him. Their breathing slowed back toward normal. She mumbled something into his chest.

"Hmm?" 

He wasn't really interested, more wanted to cuddle and sleep but it was probably rude to ignore her after...that.

"Right incentive." 

She repeated. He caught on after a second or two and chuckled. 

"It was okay then?"

She tried to slap his chest but her hand was still rubbery, she settled for flicking him with the slightly damp backs of her fingernails.

"Fishing for compliments." 

He grinned, probably stupidly, but he didn't care at the moment. She sat up a little, causing his flaccid cock to slide completely out of her. She made a little, disappointed noise and his grin got bigger. She reached down for him and he tensed but she only peeled off the synthtex covering and tossed it in the direction of his waste bin. She wriggled back against him, sliding more against his side than back on top of him. 

They lay quiet for some time, listening to the building settle around them and the occasional noise from the street. Gregor was starting to doze off when the AC unit clacked alarmingly loudly. Thena jerked into a half sitting position and glared at it when she realized what had woken her. 

"Stupid thing..." 

She lay back against him, wrapping a pale leg across his. His body let him know that it liked that very much. His hands began tracing up and down her back. She purred a little. He leaned down to kiss her again, slow and sweet but with an unmistakable implication. She was smiling lopsidedly at him when they stopped. 

"Wow mister. I guess I should have done this earlier." 

He smiled back.

"Well you do have three more of those things." 

She cocked an eyebrow.

"Haven't you ever seen a condom before?"

It seemed more prudent to kiss her than to answer that question. Even as they started the newly discovered male-female dance again the strange other-voice inside him was asking him to stop and think about this. It was telling him it wasn't too late to turn back, very quiet now, but still, unmistakably there.


	2. Chapter 6.5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interlude 2, takes place between chapter 6 and chapter 7

In the five weeks since Thena first followed him home they hadn't fucked every day. Some days they hardly saw each other. He'd get on shift as she was leaving or she'd pick up an extra round at Borkus's while he was supposed to be at Beerkin's. Other days they managed it two, even three times; usually when they had a morning or afternoon off but occasionally up against walls or in neglected side rooms at work. 

 

This was going to be one of the storage-cupboard type of encounters. These weren't generally his favorite way of making love. He preferred the sleepy mornings in bed where they could take an hour or so to build each other up or the nights where they knew they didn't have to get up at dawn; where there could be as much or as little haste as either one wanted. The fast, secret couplings were pleasurable but disquieting somehow, too rough, too rapid and intense. They left him feeling somehow as though he were seeing through more than one pair of eyes; aware of the inside of his own skin. 

 

The disorientation could last for hours. It made him unsure of whether or not his body was his own. Made him react to familiar sights and sounds in strange ways and generally left him feeling unquiet on a level beyond normal perception.

 

He'd tried to explain it to Thena once, two or three weeks into their...whatever this was called. They'd been sprawled across her bed, which he rather preferred to his own given that it was both bigger and plusher than his. Not to mention permanently attached to the floor which helped keep down distracting squeaking noises. He'd just caught his breath but was still unwarily post-coital enough to want to explain why this was so much nicer than sneaking into the dry goods pantry at the diner. She'd giggled drunkenly at his attempts before trying to sooth him with kisses and claiming that double vision and wobble-legged-ness were just signs that they were doing it right in her book. 

 

He'd tried to explain but his brain had been even muzzier than usual; clouded with hormones and something like guilt. She'd gotten his point all backwards and pouted a little when she thought that he must be finding their hours in bed less enjoyable than the quickies. Then she'd resolved to rectify the situation. He let her even though he thought it might have been a better idea to try to clarify his meaning to her again and be sure she understood this time. But she was naked and soft and he couldn't quite remember his point himself just at that moment. In the end he had indeed been seeing at least two Thenas riding him and feeling decidedly weak kneed but it was still different from the strange otherness he sometimes experienced.

 

The brief, intense sex also made his fragmented thoughts and the terrible dreams worse somehow. It was like something inside him woke up a little more after an intensely physical bout of sex. Sometimes during those encounters he felt as though something inside him, a stranger that lived in the back of his head, came forward as he and Thena fucked. It looked on with a cold, predator's interest through his eyes. It frightened him even as it's barely contained ferocity sizzled along his nerves, heightening every sensation.

 

It was disturbing to think that he seemed capable of divorcing his body and it's impulses so totally from his mind. That Thena could become an object to some part of him in those moments, a thing to satisfy his lust. That the fierce, animal side stirred by violence could also be moved by this. It alarmed him when his blood-dreams got confused with sex. 

 

He had come back to himself several times since starting at Beerkin's with his hands bloody and his teeth bared in a feral smile as he dished out some 'punishment' to an unruly patron. He'd experienced the same sort disorientation after those episodes as he did in the wake of he and Thena's quickies. What if he lost control like that while he was with Thena? Could he hurt her, would he? Gregor didn't know and that was the worst thought of all. 

 

So he'd started to avoid Thena's advances when they were in any venue where he knew they couldn't just duck out and find a proper bed. It seemed to be frustrating her but Gregor was adamant. He wouldn't risk it, wouldn't let that barrier between sex and violence thin.

 

But tonight he couldn't bring himself to be careful. The coming night at the club was going to be bad. He was going to have his red and black dreams, he knew it. It might make him a coward but the thought of facing those alone was too much. If he got Thena one, or more, good orgasms he reasoned, she'd probably be more amenable to him staying the night at the hotel even though Beerkin was certain to complain.

 

But Gregor had underestimated the stranger inside him; had not taken into account how close to the surface the recent stress had brought the Other. Something felt loose inside his head, like a door swinging on a busted hinge. The doubled perception hit him so fast he lost all sense of reality for a moment. When he came back down it was like he was standing outside himself. He watched the stranger kiss Thena's exposed shoulder, rub his face against hers to mark his territory. Gregor raged in incorporeal silence but the stranger heard. Somehow the Other looked at Gregor even as he kissed the female.

 

'My turn' the stranger whispered in Gregor's head. 'Mine now...also mine.'

And then they were at the entrance to the private room upstairs. Gregor crashed back into his body as they crossed the threshold but the stranger was still in control. 

 

He kicked the door shut the second they were both inside and propped a chair against the handle smoothly. Then he kissed Thena's properly and it wasn’t gentle or sweet. He took her jaw in his hands and held her head still so he could work her lips with his teeth and leisurely tongue her mouth open. Thena's eyes widened for a moment at the sudden change but he encouraged her not to think about it too much with little nips at the corner of her mouth and a slow grind of his pelvis against hers. She seemed to agree and slid her hands into his hair to hang on for the ride.

 

He smiled wolfishly as he let her up for air and began to walk her backward toward the card table. He was a little too quick, or maybe it was part of the plan, because Thena tripped. He had her up off her feet, across the floor and up against the felt covered table in seconds. She gasped in surprise and he kissed her again, all teeth and tongue, hands smoothly untying the lower portion of her costume. 

 

They surfaced again long enough for her to help him pull the flimsy things off. Then he half encouraged, half lifted her onto the table and dropped to his knees between her legs. He took a moment to rub his cheeks along her dampening inner thighs, inhaling the salt-sweet smell of her deeply; rumbling his desire in the back of his throat. 

 

She grabbed the edges of the table, white knuckled, as he nudged her legs farther apart with his face and dove in. Thena gave a high pitched sound of shocked pleasure and nearly went over backwards. They'd done this before. Gregor was too curious not to want to try to reciprocate oral sex after his first experience of it, but he was usually slow and careful about it, analytical almost. Not like this. 

 

He used his mouth on her cunt the way he had on her lips, pulling the folds of flesh aside directly and pushing forward. He licked her clit until she writhed and, when it seemed like she was pulling away, like it was a little too much, he stopped and suckled. He started out with his hands on her inner thighs to keep her legs open at the angle he wanted but he didn't need to worry about that after a few seconds. Thena couldn’t seem to get herself spread open enough. Her thighs were practically parallel to the table. 

 

Now that his hands were essentially free he used those too, one up near her clit to keep it exposed to his mouth; with the other he pressed fingers inside her. Between the spit and her own fluids she was already wetter than she'd ever been this early on. He got two fingers up into her like they were nothing and pumped smooth and fast. He noticed that she seemed to be trying to stay sitting up, seemed to want to watch what he was doing. That just made it better for him somehow. 

 

He glanced up at her face and Gregor felt a heady shot of testosterone-pleasure at her paleness, the huge round blackness of her eyes. The stranger all but preened at the sight. 'Mine' floated through his head again. 

 

He smiled a little and hummed; teased her with the tip of another finger, rubbed his beard a little in her vulnerable skin. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. Her eyes rolled up in her head until he could see the bluish membranes that kept them in the sockets. 

 

Her internal muscles were beginning to flutter around his fingers. He tore his eyes away from her face and went back to work. He bit down just hard enough to pinch her clit. She collapsed onto the table. He laved it with his tongue and used his teeth again. He had to move his hand up to her lower belly and press down to keep her sort of still then. She was thrashing around so much the table was shaking. 

 

He felt her pulse race against his lips. He sucked on the nub of flesh and gave her all three fingers. She tensed down on them so hard it was difficult for him to move them. But he had a clear objective in sight and managed a beckoning curl of his digits inside her. She sat up with an explosive gasp. He did it again and she fell back down.

 

Her legs closed around his head; soft, soft thighs pressing into his cheeks. He kept biting and licking and sucking her; just moving his fingers in and out. Her thighs started to shake and then the rest of her. She bucked her hips straight up off the table but he stayed with her as she convulsed. Her mouth was open again but he couldn’t hear if she made noise over the pounding of his own pulse in his ears. He played her until her hips fell back down and she started trying to prop herself dizzily onto an elbow to look at him again. 

 

She looked like she wanted to say something. Her lips started to round into the 'G' of his name but the he didn't want to hear that. Instead he pulled her close and kissed her, not caring how he tasted. She shivered and kissed him back. He forgot for a moment where he stashed the pair of condoms from the box he bought and hid in his apartment earlier in the week. They turned up in his chest pocket. Thena grabbed one and brushed against his nipple in the process. He hissed. The smile she flashed him was more than a little woozy. The alpha male currently in possession of his body purred.

 

He plucked the condom out of her hands and opened it while she undid his belt and fly. He didn't bother to get his boots off, just wiggled his hips until he was free enough. He latched onto Thena's neck to distract her from her groping of him while he slid the condom onto his cock. 

 

She twisted a little, trying to stop him leaving an obvious mark so he moved up and chewed on the skin behind her ear, nose in the short, soft hair there that was sweaty and delicious with pheromones. She wriggled and pressed forward towards him. He took the hint, slid a hand down her back, along the lovely, generous curve of her ass, and pulled to where he could work himself into her.

 

She let out a jerky, high pitched sound suddenly and arched her back as he pressed home. He guessed that he was probably doing this a little fast and tried to slow down. But she wrapped her legs around his hips and locked her ankles under his ass, refusing to let him, and he was gone. He buried his face in her hair and thrust and thrust. She was panting and holding onto his arms hard enough it hurt. It was fantastic.

 

He pushed her too far back on the table and almost came out but the combination of her legs and his hands hauled her back to slam them together with bruising force. She was murmuring on each ragged out breath; his name, like a mantra. He found that he liked that now. He couldn't find word of his own; could only growl into her hair. Her hands clutched his shoulders even harder somehow and it was like he could feel every bone in her fingers digging into the muscles as she met his rhythm. 

 

She was shivering again but he was going to beat her to the top. It was a ridiculously easy glide into her and almost all the way back out with just enough friction for it to be good, to be perfect. She was sweating. Droplets collected in the downy side-hair in front of her ear and ran along her neck. He licked it off her. Sweat pooled in the hollow of her throat. He lapped it out. It was too damn sweet, his legs were starting to shake. Then she unstuck words other than his name.

 

“Close, please.”

 

He knew what to do, orders received and understood. He slid a hand between them and pulled with thumb and forefinger, twisted a little and she arched like a bow and clamped down around him so tight he saw stars. And then there was only the animal instinct that told him to push and withdraw as hard as he could until there was nothing but blackness behind his eyelids.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

They barely made it to the tiny staff fresher without being caught. They were both so unsteady on their legs that Thena had to take off her shoes as she couldn't walk and he couldn't catch her. The rapid faucet bath almost set them off again; her half sitting in the sink and not seeming to care even a little bit about how awkward it was while pulled her top down and licked at her nipples.

 

Beerkin's strident shout of "ten minutes" in the hall outside broke them apart. They finished quickly. He wiped at his beard, trying to get the scent of her out of it so the Aqualish and Weequays don't start acting weird around him again. She did the same between her legs. He wanted to help her dry off but decided that would only get them in more trouble. Instead settled for kneeling on the tile to help her retie the bows on her bottoms. He couldn't stop himself pressing his lips against each hip bone as he did though. He also let himself stand up slowly, dragging is face along her spine all the way up the column of her neck; secretly enjoying the fact that his scent was still prominent on her despite her efforts to clean it away. She giggled and kissed him quickly before slipping out into the throng of girls on the way to the main floor.

 

He waited in the fresher for the sound in the hall to die down. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror; unkempt hair and beard and didn't recognize himself. He leaned forward until he could only see his own eyes in the glass. He fought the vertigo of staring into the stranger's eyes. They were harsh edged as always, all cunning and violence. He stared for a moment longer, trying to finds some familiar landmark in those golden brown depths and saw...satiety and a greedy, smug sort of fire burning way back . He felt the same liquid contentment and possessive satisfaction down deep in his spine and stepped back from the mirror. The eyes were still not quite his own but at least there was some common ground. He smoothed his hair back as best he could and stepped out into the smoky din of the club


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 14 Interlude.

They leave the diner together, Mi strolling between Kom'rk and Jaing, Gregor and Thena trailing behind. They're an odd pack; three of them loud, temporarily euphoric with the prospect of a debauched night of Force-alone-knew-what, and a subdued pair clutching hands like younglings lost in the woods. They all five putter to a halt just past the threshold. 

Mi's bright smile waivers for a moment when she sees Thena's closed expression. She pauses again to hug her friend, whispering something to her so softly Gregor can only hear the hiss of her breath. Thena nods after a moment and clutches Mi tight. The three clones stand awkwardly, watching. They have nothing to say to each other at present. 

Mi detaches at last and holds her arms open to Gregor. He hesitates for a long second but Mi's persistent. He steps forward and she wraps her arms around his waist, squeezing hard enough to make him wheeze. She doesn't whisper anything to him, just presses a slightly damp cheek against his jaw for a moment and then steps back. 

Her eyes are a little blue-rimmed but dry and sly grin is pulling at her mouth. She blows a kiss to the quiet pair before skipping back to the Nulls. Kom'rk tries to wrap and arm around her waist only to be brushed off. Jaing offers her his arm and is accepted. Mi says something that makes them laugh as the vanish into the dark and the crowds.

Gregor watches them, trying not to think about what the hell he's supposed to do next. He's spent so many of the past thirty eight hours avoiding thinking about this moment that reality's caught him completely flat footed. Is he supposed to have something comforting to say? Is he supposed to sweep Thena up and bridal-carry her back to the ship for a farewell fling? He can't work out how to do either one of those things and now Thena's pulling on his hand. He turns to look at her.

"Hey, don't cry in the middle of the street okay? Because that would look weird." 

There's no bite to the jibe. Her voice sounds strained. But he smiles anyway.

"Okay, let's get back to Simlii so my unmanly blubbering doesn't embarrass you in public."

She smiles shakily.

"Yeah, sounds good."  
-

They stroll back toward the ship, hand in hand. Gregor realizes with an inward start that this is only the third time he's ever been out in public with Thena. It's the first time he's ever done something so openly affectionate as hold her hand. It's an unpleasant surprise to realize how much he likes it. It was a lot easier to think about maintaining a clandestine romance when they'd never really done anything aboveboard. Now that he's getting a taste of what he'll be missing it's troubling.

He wonders if this is what Kom'rk and Jaing were trying to warn him about. Is he going to be distracted by this when he's gone? Is Thena going to be embittered by the fact that she can't wander down a street with her man whenever the fancy strikes her? Is this moment of normalcy the beginning of the end?

Gregor stops in the middle of the street, trying not to hyperventilate. Thena's pulling at his hand again.

"Gregor? Gregor? What's the mat--"

He grabs her and kisses her right there on the street; right there for all and sundry to see. He does it because he can. There's nothing that says he can't. There's nothing that says they have to fail either. He came back from the dead for kriff's sake. Screw everyone else expecting them to fall apart because the going's about to be tough. 

He sets Thena back on her feet. She wobbles a little and braces herself on his chest. It feels fantastic to have her pressed up against him while a half dozen beings grouse and shove by them.

"Uh...wha...hi there." Thena stutters. 

Gregor grins and bends down to kiss her again, more gently this time. It's still feels like laying out in the warm spring sun though the sky is ashy and a cold wind is whipping out of the southwest. Thena's laughing a little when he pulls back again.

"I...let's get to the ship?" She asks breathily and low and doing bad, bad things to his insides.

"Sounds like a plan." He says, voice gruff in his ears. 

He keeps an arm around her shoulders the rest of the way. He keeps pausing momentarily to kiss her hair as they walk. Because he can.  
-

They don't fall to the floor of the belly-bay and go at it like lapids as soon as the airlock closes. The floor's kind of filthy and slightly covered in metal shavings from where Mi and Thena have been retrofitting components. It's also freezing in there. With ship systems powered down Simlii's a triangular chuck of hollow metal that conducts cold fantastically well. 

So before they get to clothes-shedding there's the desperate run to the cockpit to power up basic systems followed by ten minutes of huddling under blankets in Thena's bunk. Gregor wonders if anyone actually has the type of devil-may-care sex that crops up so much on the holonet fictions. He's starting to suspect not but that's not really a problem for him. He thinks he's probably having more fun shivering and swearing through Simlii's interminable warm-up cycle with Thena than he would be if they just fucked each other into the floor at every opportunity. 

Another bonus of having to live in a world of real people who have real sex is that in vids the undressing is always edited out. Partner A unhooks something. Partner B is shot from behind dropping an article of clothing to the floor and then, suddenly, sex. 

Letting Thena tug his jacket off his shoulders while she simultaneously tries not to stop kissing him is so much better. Her fumbling with the closures of his body-glove is better still. Especially as each moth-light brush of her skin against his sends delicious shocks along his spine. 

He decides not to help her get it all the way off him once she's finally undone the front clasps. He only allows her to pull him to his feet. She hisses and swears he's so lazy that he doesn't deserve sex but he knows her. Thena's as bad as he is once she gets going and there is no way she'd walk out on the promise of orgasms. 

He tries not to giggle too obviously as she yanks the tight material off his arms and along his torso. But his ribs shake with repressed mirth and Thena's glowering at him only makes it worse. He can barely stand for laughing as Thena all but chews off the buttons on his trousers before struggling to work the suit over his hips.

She gets her revenge though, in the best possible way. The minute the suit and trousers are far enough down; hung up around his ankles. She drops to her knees in front of him and gets her mouth around him. His laughter morphs into a strangled moan as she slides her mouth down the length of him. 

The air is still cool enough that the inside of her mouth feels molten against his skin. Her tongue presses along the vein on the underside of his member and his knees threaten to buckle. He feels Thena chuckle. He feels it. It vibrates against him. One of his hands slams backwards into the curve of the bulkhead in an attempt to keep himself upright. Thena makes another sound in her throat, a disappointed little growl that hums across his head. He chews his lips raw to keep from moaning. 

She inhales slowly through her nose and does something with her throat and it's indescribable. He can feel the back of her soft palate massaging him as she swallows. Her lips drag rough and silky at once across the nerve heavy skin between the base of his cock and his sack. And then she opens her mouth just enough for her tongue to come back into play. 

The combination of her mouth and throat and lips on his shaft mixes dizzily with the stuttering, wet-velvet drag of the tip of her tongue along the base of his sac. It's too much to process. His knees give out completely and he collapses to the bunk.

 

She follows him down. He can't quite believe that she's able to do that. He feels a distant jolt of guilt when the force of his ass hitting the mattress jostles his cock in her throat and she gags a bit. She lifts off him slightly. He starts to make motions to pull back, concerned about his lack of control. 

Thena's not having it though. She sets her teeth against him, just the ends of them, light as breath. It makes him feel vulnerable in the most fantastically obscene way. He quakes, right down to the soles of his feet. It rubs him against her teeth a little harder. His eyes roll up in his head. He feels her smile. 

And then she really gets down to the business of making him sorry for laughing. It's been awhile but the girl's obviously got a good memory. She uses all of his favorite moves to drive him mad.

She rolls her lips up and back down from base to head keeping the suction even until she's right up by the cap. Then she alternates between deep suction and swirling her tongue over it. She does these things randomly, building up a rhythm between one and the other only to shift suddenly until he's panting. 

She also occasionally throws in those teeth as well. Gregor's heard that some men don't like that but he kind of thinks that's more because their partners are doing it wrong. There is nothing at all wrong with the way Thena lets her teeth glide oh so gently along the underside, pausing now and again to compress the vein carefully. 

It's been too long. He's almost too far gone for the thought within minutes, seconds really. It's happening too fast. He wants to take more time at this. Wants to do so much more than just rut away in her mouth like an adolescent. 

He tries to force his thick tongue, which seems to have glued itself to the roof of his mouth, to do something useful. Thena runs her cool fingers along his inner thighs, defeating him. He pries his eyes open in an attempt to regain some composure. The sight of her cap of black hair bobbing below his waist tears a desperate whimper from his throat that might, almost sound like her name. 

Thena must be feeling merciful because she leans back, letting his cock slide free. The saliva coating him cools rapidly, spreading gooseflesh up and down his torso. Thena rocks back on her heels and looks up at him through her lashes, mouth shining wet and wearing a wicked smile. 

“You okay there Gregor?” She asks thickly.

He doesn’t bother trying for word. Instead grabbing her and dragging her into his lap to show her just how okay he is. 

“Ow, hey! You’ve got all your clothes on.” He yelps as the rough material of her trousers abrades several inches of sensitized skin. 

Thena just grins. He mutters dark things about female treachery as he paws clumsily at what seem to be about four dozen buttons that she has on her ridiculous shirt. He snarls and sets his hands on either side of the collar only to feel Thena’s firm grip on his wrists. He looks at her, noting the serious expression on her face.

“This is one of exactly three shirts I own Gregor. You rip it and you’re sleeping in your own bunk.”

He blinks, trying to jump start his brain. Finally something not completely gummed up by repressed lust reminds him of how to nod. Thena gently disentangles his hands and starts to stand. He grabs at her hips, fingers digging lusciously into her ass, and yanks her back forward. She laughs breathlessly and kisses his nose. 

“Baby.” She purrs, in a disconcertingly accurate Mi impression “you should maybe deal with your own issues first before you tear off my clothes.” 

Gregor frowns. She motions downward. He looks at his boots, which he’s still wearing; and at the ridiculous looking puddle of cloth around his ankles. 

“Oh.” He rumbles.

Thena giggles. She giggles so hard it's difficult for her to get off of him. Gregor suddenly understands what she must have felt when he laughed about her struggles with his clothes. 

He resolves twice over to get her back as he clumsily hauls his boots off and works to pry off the body glove and trousers. He barks out a triumphant laugh as he kicks the tangle away. He fully intends to jump up, grab Thena, toss her on the bunk and make her beg forgiveness. 

But Thena’s also in the process of taking of the rest of her clothes; the very end of the process. He can only stare at the way she slides her clingy, blue undershorts down her legs. She tries to kick them off, swears when they catch on her still bandaged foot and bends over to pull them off. Gregor tries not to swallow his tongue. 

He does manage to get Thena onto the bed then. How he does it he can’t quite remember. He comes back to himself in a tangle of pale limbs and Thena’s breath. It smells like the spice from the fruit pie. Her tongue is still sweet with residual sugar. Her skin is cool and soft; as soft as he remembers it, softer. It's mind boggling that anyone can feel so perfectly proportioned under his hands. He wants to touch every dip and curve of her to see if his fingers fit each one. 

He'll do that later. Some time when Thena isn't moaning and writhing quiet so enticingly under him. She twists a little too hard suddenly, catching him in the stomach with her pelvis as she moves. He stops dead as she hisses in pain. 

"Careful." She whispers. 

He looks down, libido ebbing rapidly. The left side of her ribs is spangled grey-yellow with bruises. There's a bluish line that probably exactly matches one of the counters in Beerkin's kitchens runs diagonally from mid-rib to belly. He feels suddenly queasy and sits up.

"Hey, hey where are you going?" Thena asks, sounding both worried and sad. 

She follows the line of his gaze.

"Yeah, it's not the most attractive look is it?" Her voice goes soft as she asks; trailing off to almost nothing at the end. 

She hangs her head, hiding behind her hair again. 

"I mean...if you're....we don't have to..." 

He knows she doesn't mean to twist a verbal knife in his gut. But her insecurity kills him all the same. He leans down slowly, keeping his weight braced on his hands on either side of her head. Her eyes are huge and deep, deep black as she watches him. He holds himself a inch above her, arms at right angles. His left elbow's pressed hard against the bulkhead but he ignores the pain.

He's not smooth like Kom'rk or charming like Jaing. He doesn't have something to say that will make everything better. He kisses her instead. He starts slow, just a gentle press of his mouth against hers until she breathes out. Then he goes deeper; stroking his tongue along first the upper lip and then the lower; letting it stutter a little on the slightly chapped skin there. When a soft, throaty sound opens her mouth he slides his tongue in after her inhaled breath. He strokes her tongue with his, explores the shape of her teeth, draws her back to let her delve into his mouth.

She's shivering by the time he presses himself back up an inch, though the room's now almost warm and her skin's hot. He smiles down at her, deliberately. She smiles back so brilliantly his arms quiver a bit. She sits up a little to twine her arms around his shoulders and neck; pulling him back down. He goes but rolls slightly so that he's pressed against the bulkhead with one hand free.

It's not ideal, he'd much rather use both his hands to play with both of her breasts, but the close, full body contact is pretty great. The way he can feel her moaning and gasping into his mouth when he runs his fingers along her nipple is possibly better. She's trashing a little bit as he plays her but he's careful not to bump her ribs again. He just strokes and tugs and kisses her over and over, as much as he likes. 

"Gre...Gregor!" Thena finally grinds out, wrenching her mouth off of his. 

"Hmm?" He takes the momentary detachment to examine the curve of her neck, strategizing where he'd like to go next. 

"Don't tease."

He gives her a sideways look, notes how pale she is; how much like huge and opaque her eyes are getting and smiles. 

"Oh, okay. If you want." 

He grabs her ass again, squeezing a few more times than is strictly necessary, and hauls her up a little; simultaneously sliding himself down the bunk so that he's eye level with her chest. She grips his shoulders lightly as he moves but seems to be letting him take the lead. That's good because he's got plans for her. 

He pulls her lovely, puckered nipple into his mouth as soon as he's sure he's got a decent grip on her torso that's not pinching any injuries. She gasps and arches backwards, head slipping a little on the edge of the bunk. He hauls her closer with his left hand to make sure she doesn't thrash straight off the mattress and keeps licking and sucking away. Thena's gone completely incoherent, groaning and gasping almost continuously. While she's distracted he slips his free hand along her legs, encouraging her to toss one up over his hips. She does it awkwardly, like she's not quite paying attention to what's happening below the level of his tongue on her. 

He eases up on her breast for a moment, just brushing kisses against it. She whines unhappily. He runs two fingers along her wet slit. Thena gasps raggedly and arches again, driving her nipple back into his mouth. He bites down lightly and teases her clit. She shudders; keens and hauls her leg up toward his ribs to give him room to work.

He takes the hit and presses his middle finger into her, rolling skin near her clit with his thumb. Thena's pulse ramps up so fast he can actually feel her heart beat against his lips as he continues to play with her breast. Or possibly it's just his own blood racing ever more frantically as Thena sighs and whimpers and pushes herself into his hands and mouth wantonly. 

He slips his index finger into her as well and her hips buck him into the wall with not inconsiderable force. She's arched so far back now that he can't get to her chest anymore. Instead he contents himself with watching her face contort with pleasure; trying to sear the memory of her in these moments into his brain. He rubs circles on her clit with his thumb, wanting to see what that does. Her eyes snap open; void-black and wild. 

"Gregor, Force. Please." She moans.

Her voice destroys him. He's back to feeling out of control in the best possible way. He scrambles up the mattress. She jerks her right leg out from under him quickly. Too quickly because she suddenly slides alarmingly toward the edge of the bunk. She steadies herself with a squeak, putting her right foot flat on the floor. 

He fumbles and nearly trips off the bed as she scrabbles over her head for something. The raging lust almost stops him from catching the foil package she clumsily pushes into his hands. It takes both of them to get the condom on. Him to open the wrapper on the fourth try, her to get it right way up and finally him to slide it on. Thena tries to help with that too but he won't let her. He's fairly sure he'll come right there if she touches him. 

He reaches for her hips, lifting and guiding her until she's securely settled against him. He kneels, watching her squirm infinitesimally in anticipation. He tries to count to some enormous number to regain his composure. It becomes a futile exercise when she suddenly opens her eyes and stretches to run her right leg up his back almost to his shoulder. 

With a ragged breath and a silent hope that it's not too fast he lifts himself to her entrance and pushes in. She her spine curves backward again, leg hard across his back, head thrown to one side, neck taught. He tries to go slow but it's so, so good. Her cunt is a thousand times hotter than her mouth; it's silky and sticky and smells like sharp, salty heaven. 

He groans and drops forward on his hands to thrust deeper. She locks her legs over him, hips following him up and forward. She's bracing herself against him, legs around his waist, hands over his shoulders, weight supported only on her shoulders. It can't be comfortable but she seems too far gone to care. He is too. All he can do is push and buck while she rocks time.

He wants to make this good for her but she's undoing him. The length of time since they've done this, his residual fear that they'd never do it again, the creeping worry about the future. It's all mixing into a heady cocktail of emotions and hormones that's ensuring this encounter is going to be over shortly. 

He moans in frustration at the thought and somehow, miraculously, Thena understands. One of her hands falls from his shoulder to slither its way down between them. She does what he can't, fingers fast and sure. He can feel them brushing against him on each in-out glide. Then she gasps and goes rigid suddenly. Every muscle inside her seems intent on clenching down on him; holding him in place. His hind brain is equally stubborn and insists that he push through the pressure, drag his way out and then do it all again. 

He can't hear the sounds Thena's making anymore over everything exploding inside him. Somewhere deep down he's a little surprised at how noisy they're being but he can't see that as a bad thing at the moment. Nothing's bad right now. There's just the perfect dual motion of the pair of them and the flawless peak. And then there's a beautiful, dark silence where he's without identity or thought.

-

He comes back to his pleasantly tingly body after some unknowable stretch of time. His head's pillowed bellow Thena's breasts and she's playing absently with his hair. He smiles into the soft flesh of her belly and lets his hands slide up the back of her ribs, tracing the padded bones there. She purrs and arches up a little. He presses his face into her stomach to kiss her. She wiggles tiredly and sighs. It's a happy sound so he continues. Suddenly something under his mouth makes a noise like a caged gotkur. Thena freezes. Gregor looks up at her quizzically, chin resting on her stomach. The sound comes again. It vibrates against his throat. 

"Is that your stomach?" He asks. 

She goes white. He bursts out laughing. Her stomach rumbles again and he's having trouble breathing between fits of laughter. Thena's got her hands over her face in embarrassment but he can feel her laughing too. 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She's muttering.

He flicks her elbow to get her attention. She drops her hands to look at him, clearly mortified.

"You got more food right? Along with the engine parts?" 

She nods.

"Well maybe we can take this party to the galley." 

Her stomach gives an affirmative hum. She grimaces. 

"Sweet Force this is like the least romantic thing ever." She grumbles. He's laughing again, delighted to be able to laugh like this with her. 

"I like a woman with an appetite." He reassures her, sitting up.

He offers her a hand up and, after another moment of embarrassed squirming, she takes it. 

-

 

He makes them protein board sliders for old time's sake. Though since they're trying to be frugal with the supplies there's only two and no sauces. The quality of the protein and they're earlier exertions, however, make everything taste wonderful. They wash up together, or he does while Thena rubs herself on his back. It's much, much better than any day he'd ever had at Power Sliders. 

Also for old time's sake, once everything's cleaned and stowed, Gregor backs Thena into a wall and works her up with his fingers until she shudders and thrashes. Mi's left them a box of condoms on the table with a note about appropriate sex venues versus where we eat. Out of respect, and an increasing difficulty with keeping his legs under him, Gregor sits on the bench that runs behind the dining table. Thena wedges herself in on top of him for another round. 

He lasts longer this time, coaxing her through another two orgasms before finally giving in to his own. They're both sweaty and boneless-tired by the time they're done. Thena insists they shower before bed, citing the fact that she's both always wanted to do that and this may be her last opportunity for awhile. That's a sobering thought but Thena's naked enthusiasm, and general nakedness, helps him push it aside long enough to make it into the tiny shower.

It's almost impossible for the pair of them to fit. They get water everywhere and Thena nearly falls trying to rinse soap out of his hair. They manage somehow, even if the thoroughness of their washing is in doubt. They at least rinse off the sweat. 

He falls asleep almost before they're both settled in Thena's bunk. He had wanted to spend more time cuddling but there's only so much he can manage in one day. He'd probably have slept till morning had it not been for Mi banging up the ramp, blind drunk near dawn. She calls their names repeatedly from the bay, voice echoing through the hollow spaces of the ship. Thena winces.

"Wow. That's not quite what I wanted to wake up to." She mutters darkly. 

Gregor huffs and pulls her back against him.

"So pretend you're not awake." 

Thena wriggles luxuriously and rolls over to press her face into his chest.

"I like the way you think." 

Mi's not buying their act. She slaps the bulkhead Thena's bunk shares with the main bay. Gregor flinches at the reverberation.

"Haar'chak, I guess we should see if she's okay, before she finds something else to make noise with."

Thena groans a protest. Gregor smiles and kisses the part of her hair. 

"Come on Ten'ika, just for a bit. Long enough to get her to bed and then we'll come back." 

She groans again but starts to sit up. They still take their time untangling limbs and finding clothing, neither one overly eager to face the reality of the morning. Just as he's reaching for the door release Thena puts a hand on his arm.

"What?" He starts to ask.

She stops him with a kiss; a long, slow, tender kiss that makes his eyes flutter shut. A kiss that's obviously meant to tell him things she's still not quite ready to say. He's not sure he's ready to say or hear them either so he kisses her back, letting his body imply for him. They pull back reluctantly. She smiles at him; the creeping, uneven smile that he loves more than he's comfortable thinking about. He smiles back at her and hopes with all that he is that everything's going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on Mandalorian:
> 
> Haar'chak = Damnit


End file.
